Annealing-furnace.



H. GKRTNER.

ANN BALING FURNACE.

APPLIOATION FILED JAN. 23, 1912 Patented May 28, 1912.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

H. GKRTNER.

ANNEALING FURNACE. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 23, 1912.

Patented May'28, 1912.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

V firm EITGKRTNER. ANNEALING FURNACE.

AP PLIGATION FILED JAN. 23, 1912.

Patented May 28, 1912.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3 Q Ja UNITED .aEBMAnN' GARTNER, or LINTOR-F, NEARDUSSELDORF, GERMANY.

ANNnALmG-rURNacE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

, Patented May 28,1912.

Application and January 23, 1912. Serial 11'... 672,899. j

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERMan-N GX TNER. a subject of the German Emperor,and re-' siding at Lintorf, near Dusseldorf, Kingdom of Prussia,Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inAnnealing-Furnaces, of which the following is a specification. I a

The present invention relates .to an arrangement for annealing brightmetallic articles .1n mdiiferent gases, the entrance and outlet openingsbeing arranged below the filled annealing chamber or cooling downchamber respectively. The subject-invention differs from other knownarrangements for this purpose by that at the outer ends of the annealingchamber and cooling down chamber arranged in .a straight line behindeach other and closable against other by means of a damper, verticalshafts are provided, which can be closed below, and that in these shaftselevators are arranged, with which the charge to be annealed can becontinuously introduced in large quantities and discharged respectivelyon trucks and the like fitting into the-annealing and cool ing downchamber.

In the accompanying drawing a constructional form of the furnace isexemplified, Figure 1 being a longitudinal section; .Fig. 2 is atransverse section alOng'lA-B-in Fig. 1 and Fig. 3 is a plan sectionalong C-D in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is an elevation of another constructionalform of the charging device.

The furnace, which is fitted with a recuperator 1", consists essentiallyof a. horizontal shaft, which can be divided by a damper 8 into anannealing chamber 9 fitted with the annealing muffle m, and a coolingdown chamber is respectively, and at its two ends two vertical shafts 'vand u respectively, in which elevators a and b are arranged forintroducing and discharging the trucks w. Theseelevators have insulatingtops (Z, for preventing the heat from penetrating downward into theelevator. These trucks w are provided at their ends with vertical walls0 of refractory bricks, which will just fill out the width of the mufileso that when a truck is conveyed from. the annealing chamber, it will beimpossible for all the hot gases to pass from the annealing chamber intothe cooling chamber. The latter is free on all sides and is thereforewell cooled by the air; besides it may be provided with a separate watercooling arrangement. In order to protect the vertical guides of elevatora against distortion 'by heat, which might interfere with the properoperation of the elevator, these guides at are .made'tubular so as to becooled by water,

which may be supplied thereto in any suitable manner. The rods of thedamper s and the elevators a, b are guided in known manner in sand cups25 thereby affording tight joints. 1.

Into the upper part of elevator shaft 1) opens a pipe 0 for admitting aninert gas into the annealing'ch'amber, while a valve controlled burnerpipe 29 is provided below the sole of said chamber, so that by lightingsaid burner the nature of the flame will indicate the character of thegas charge within the annealing chamber.

Through the'head wall of the shaft 0; is passed'in a stufiing box a rodf, which can be pushed by means of a driving device 2' into the shaft2;, and will thereby push the trucks off the elevator into the annealingchamber. The elevator shaft M has on its walls a plurality of gutters Z,through which a continuous stream of cooling water flows and thusassists in cooling the cooling down chamber. The vertical shafts have intheir lower part doors 6 and n for allowing of the trucks enteringandleaving the elevators.

These elevators may be operated either from above, preferably by meansof hoisting gears attached to the roof-work of the building, or alsofrom below by means of a. hydraulic lifting gear h, as shown in Fig. 4.i

The operation is as follows: After the annealing muflle and theextension mufile have been filled with an inert gas, which can beascertained by means of the controlling flame lighted at the pipe p thetruck laden with the material to be annealed is rolled through theopened door eon the elevator and the door is closed again. As soon asthe elevator is raised by means of the hoisting or lifting gear thetruck laden with the material will act as an insulation against. theheat rushing out. When the elevator, which is fitted with a strikinggear operating at always the same level, has reached this level,the'truck is pushed by nealing process, for the heat not to escape intothe cooling down mufile. After the ma: terial has been annealed thedamper s is raised and the truck is pushed by the following trucks orthe ejector into the cooling down mufiie; While the door 6 is beingraised, the walls 0 of the trucks will prevent the heat from rushinginto the cooling down muflie. After the truck has been moved into thecooling mufiie the damper is closed down again. From the coolingdownmufile, the length of which depends likewise on the respectivecircumstances the truck is moved into the second elevator 12, beingpushed onto the same by the following cars. A device may, however, alsobe provided by means of which the operator can draw the truck from thecooling down muffle on to the elevator by meansof a rod with a hookpassed through a stuffing box into the interior. Windows with mica panesallow of an observation of the process within the mu-flie. After theelevator 6 charged with a truck w has arrived at its lower level, door nis opened and the truck ,-'is drawn out by hand. As the annealingmufitle is constantly under heat, the charge is very quickly in aglowing heat and can be rolled at any time into the cooling down mufiie,whether there is a fresh charge ready to be introduced or not. In thesame manner material may be fetched out or introduced at any time. Iffor instance the annealing mufile is occupied, and the first truck isnot yet thoroughly annealed, the freshly introduced truck can remainstanding in the elevator after having been raised, and is preliminarilyheated in this position.

As the introducing and removing of the trucks may be carried out at anymoment bers filled with gas.

and these two operations are independent of each other one man will besufiicient for operating the plant, so much the more, as the mechanicaloutfit is so designed, that the parts will automatically return intotheir initial position after the work has been completed.

The material is removed from the furnace in as bright a state as it wasintroduced into it, as it is entirely out of question for the heavy airbelow to rise into the higher cham- At the same time all draft isavoided, as the doors are opened alternately only and while the door isclosed, will further serve as a tight closure. The arrangement may alsobe made that it is impossible to open the door while'the elevator israised.

I claim:

In an annealing furnace of the character described, an annealingchamber, an adjacent horizontally alined cooling chamber, a damperintermediate said chambers, elevator shafts communicating with the outerends of said chambers and extending downwardly therefrom, elevatorsreciprocable withinsaid shafts, and charge-receiving trucks adapted totravel through the annealing and cooling chambers, said trucks beingprovided with end walls that closely fit into the profile of thechambers, so as to separate the annealing chamber from the the elevatorrising cooling chamber, while the damper is opened and while a truck ispassed from the annealing chamber into the cooling chamber.

HERMANN GARTNER. [L. 5.]

Witnesses:

- CHAS. J. WRIGHT,

'HELEN NUFEB.

